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WALKING is the subject of a Southern Cross University study that people on the Coffs Coast can participate in. The research team for the study is seeking participants for a free program that explores the physical and mental benefits of walking more. Advertise with News of The Area today. It’s worth it for your business....

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SANDY Luhrs, local author and foodie who resides in Urunga on the Coffs Coast, has emerged from the Australian Government Self-Employment Assistance (SEA) program inspired and creative. The nine-month course has provided her with regular mentoring and support in business and entrepreneurship. Advertise with News of The Area today. It’s worth it for your business....

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DECISION day for fire ants is July 13. That’s when Australia’s agriculture ministers will be meeting face-to-face and fire ants will be on the agenda. Advertise with News of The Area today. It’s worth it for your business. Message us. Phone us – (02) 4981 8882. Email us – media@newsofthearea.com.au The last eradication plan dates...

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LIFE-SAVING pacemaker implantation services are now available at Coffs Harbour hospital as a day surgery. A collaboration between Member for Coffs Harbour Gurmesh Singh, Coffs Harbour cardiologist Dr Austin May and the Mid North Coast Local Health District Board working together for two years has brought these pacemaker implantation services to Coffs Harbour Hospital. Advertise...

The post Pacemaker survey is now available at Coffs Harbour Health Campus appeared first on News Of The Area.

INNOVATING in the tourism business, Christopher and Louise Wilson – founders of Old Mates Burgers in Coffs Harbour – are working on ways of collaborating and connecting with other local businesses for new experiences and discounts for the participants. In partnership with Brent and Belinda Watson, founders of Coffs Harbour Trike and Private Tours, the...

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MIX it Like a DJ is a free workshop facilitated by local, long-time DJ, DJ Dangerwaves, and hosted by Bellingen, Dorrigo and Urunga libraries during the school holidays. Bellingen Shire Council has secured the Regional Youth Winter Holiday Break grant, meaning the libraries will be putting on this unique event for free for teens. Advertise...

The post DJ Dangerwaves at Coffs Coast local libraries this school holiday appeared first on News Of The Area.

MILLIE, a five year old Staffordshire bull terrier and her owner, Martin Young, who live in Boambee East, near Coffs Harbour, clock up thousands of kilometres a year, training dogs and competing locally and interstate. Last weekend, they were in Durack, Queensland, where DOGS Qld hosted the National titles in rally and obedience and the...

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The 20th century’s deadliest pandemic launched medical thinking in a dramatically new direction.

The post How the 1918 Pandemic Revolutionized Virology appeared first on Nautilus.

It’s awful NeverTrumper Tim Miller has some interesting thoughts on Supreme Court reform: How Normal Is This Court, Really: A Meditation From a Conflicted Man  People on the right bristled at a frank comment from President Joe Biden as he exited a press conference last Thursday: “This is not a normal Court,” he said. In their view, this was an example of Biden betraying his promise to be a steward of our norms and institutions and taking an unnecessary swipe at a SCOTUS that has executed constitutionally sound, conservative jurisprudence.  Here’s a version of this position that was posted by an pseudonymous anti-Trump conservative I follow on Twitter:  I assume we at The Bulwark are part of the “norms” crowd he is referring to, and while I don’t speak for everyone here, my view is that critiques of this Court and discussions of reform are totally legitimate and within the bounds of standard political discourse.  For starters, the size of the Supreme Court has changed several times before; the current number of justices was not set out on stone tablets delivered from on high.

It’s not that we like EVs more. They’re just way better now.

The post Why Electric Cars Are Taking Off appeared first on Nautilus.

Does it really matter that Australia’s defence policy has no moorings, and is created unaware of past pain, lessons and policy responses? By agents with unknown interests. And that American influence has been ushered into this void, most recently by Minister Marles? ‘De-risking’ is the latest term in geopolitics. It mostly concerns China. European leaders Continue reading »

China it seems, is nowhere near as isolated or feared by the “international community” as Western mainstream media would have us believe. The USA uses the term “international community” very often to include the G7 and a few “partners with shared values”. When this community is viewed through a different lens, it becomes clear there Continue reading »

The footage is harrowing. Drones launching missiles over people’s homes. The front doors of a hospital pelted with tear gas. Young children in tears fleeing their homes in the middle of the night, arms raised high in surrender. Israeli bulldozers ripping up roads. It is time we stopped being bystanders to these atrocities and stepped Continue reading »

Missing records, billions in over-runs, conflicts of interest, and flawed ships. How the Australian Defence Department’s new frigates project is a boondoggle for a British weapons-maker. In a two-part investigation, Declassified Australia examines the flawed contracting process that led to a $46 billion naval ship-building deal that has been found to be suffering what an investigative audit described Continue reading »

The ACT’s judiciary will henceforth be lacking a meticulous pillar of consistency, but the resignation of Magistrate Beth Campbell allows also pause for reflection on the exceptional criminal courts the Territory has grown across Campbell’s quarter-century on the bench and indeed across the 34 years since self-government. The ACT was always different, having no intermediate Continue reading »

Education should not be seen as a “buy and sell” commodity. Words matter, and the choice of the term “market” when referring to Australian vocational education and training (VET) is more than symbolic; it shows a preference to continue Australia’s deeply problematic policy of marketising (substantially privatising) the VET system. The term underlies and reinforces Continue reading »

Although Penny Wong is eager to condemn Hong Kong, she has done nothing of any substance to help her fellow countryman, Julian Assange; an Australian citizen currently in a UK jail fighting extradition to the US, which is using the extraterritorial reach of the Espionage Act (1917) for the alleged “crime” of exposing malfeasance at Continue reading »

They’re super white too… Those numbers of Millennials and Gen Z are just astonishing. NBC News reports: Republican primary voters are older, whiter and much more conservative than the electorate at large. That should surprise no one who follows American politics, but our most recent national NBC News poll captures the profile of what the GOP primary electorate looks like. Thirty-nine percent of Republican primary voters are age 65 and older, compared with 25% of the overall electorate and 25% of Democratic primary voters, according to the poll. Eighty-nine percent of GOP primary voters are white, versus 72% of all voters. And 67% of Republican primary voters say they are conservative, including 41% who are “very” conservative.  That compares with 36% of all voters who are conservative, including 18% who are “very” conservative. There are two slight — but significant — changes to the composition of the Republican electorate since the 2016 election cycle, when Donald Trump won the party’s presidential nomination and the White House, per the NBC News poll’s historical results.

A deep fake is a picture or video of someone doing or saying something they didn’t. In the old days pictures and video were considered “proof”, it was easy to tell if they had been altered, as with the laughable removal of out-of-favour leaders from Soviet pictures.

With the advent of useful “AI’ making deepfakes has become easy, and it is destroying one of the ways we know the truth. In addition it is putting people into positions they never took, having them say things they did not say and so forth. The common general use is for pornography, but putting words into someone’s mouth is potentially just as bad.

The law will need to be changed to deal with this.

A new Senate report calls out the FBI for lying to Congress about its social media monitoring, pointing out the FBI’s hiring of ZeroFox.

The post FBI Hired Social Media Surveillance Firm That Labeled Black Lives Matter Organizers “Threat Actors” appeared first on The Intercept.

The Least Expensive Thing on the Registry: You are cheap, sure, but they wouldn’t put the gift on the registry if they didn’t want it, right? Enjoy the picture frame, newlyweds! At the $200-per-plate reception, you’ll be telling the “drinks are on me!” joke at the open bar all night.

The Second Least Expensive Thing on the Registry: Someone already bought the cheapest item.

Le Creuset Dutch Oven: You hope they will buy this for you when you get married. Or at least whatever advanced model is on the market by the time you get married. Someday.

High-End Thank You Notes: Hint-hint.

The Knife Block with Seven Japanese Steel Blades: You grossly overestimated how much this couple likes to cook.

Sur La Table Flatware: You fully expect to be invited over for a dinner party after they get back from their honeymoon.